Thursday morning my chest was hurting when I woke up. The bronchitis had gotten substantially better and the cough had subsided for the most part but the chest pain and tightness made me worry. I decided to wait a while and see what happened but Friday morning it was worse and I was rattling pretty badly when I woke up. I called my doctor's office when I got to work and left a message for my doctor... whomever answered the phone said I was probably going to need a chest xray, which I figured as much. When I hadn't heard back from them by 2:30 on Friday afternoon I called back. At this point I was told the doctor had my message and they couldn't do anything until he had read it and responded; a nurse would call me and let me know.
Five o'clock rolls around, the office closes, and I haven't heard anything at all. I waited until six o'clock to give them time to make after-hours calls (and checked with my pharmacy to make sure they hadn't called anything in without letting me know) and then headed to the Baptist Urgent Care. My chest hurt. I felt like I wasn't getting enough air. I didn't feel like waiting until Monday for answers or whatever help I should be getting.
Dr. Russo at Baptist UC was really nice. He said my lungs sounded okay but that I needed a chest xray... and the xray department was already closed. Of course they were. So he wrote me a scrip for a chest xray and said to come back today. He also impressed me by writing "please" on the scrip. Just thought that was a nice touch.
I went in and it turns out Baptist UC doesn't use in-house xrays... I had to go next door to the imaging department. And my insurance requires an authorization for the xray since it's done outpatient and not under the UC billing. Otherwise I'd be out of pocket a little over $200. No, thanks. My doctor's office is closed, so I can't get an auth from them. I tried calling the insurance myself, went through the number options for emergency authorization and was told to hang up and call 911 or call my doctor's office. Grr.
Ultimately I decided not to get the xray. I could have called the on-call doctor to see if they would have it authorized after the fact, but that's risky. All I would really have would be the on-call doctor's word for it. I don't feel bad enough to go to the ER... in fact, I feel a smidge better today. Maybe the steroids the doc gave me last night are helping. Or maybe the fact that I'm back on the cough syrup almost full time is masking the pain since it has codene in it.
Either way I'm left following up with my primary care doctor on Monday to get the service that they should have provided me yesterday. I can't get the health care I need over the weekend without taking the chance of coming out of pocket for it or going to the ER. Ooooh, my doctor's office is going to hear it from me on Monday!
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